Staples Center

Time: 6:30 On the air: TV: Fox Sports West; Radio: 570; 1330. Where: Staples Center. VS. PORTLAND Records: Lakers 26-5, Trail Blazers 20-13. Record vs. Trail Blazers: 1-0. Update: Brandon Roy will miss his third consecutive game because of a strained right hamstring. Rookie Rudy Fernandez replaces him in the starting lineup.

Abner Mares will now defend his World Boxing Council super-bantamweight title even closer to home, with Golden Boy Promotions announcing Thursday that it's moving his title defense against Anselmo Moreno to Staples Center on Nov. 10. "When Top Rank decided Manny Pacquiao would not fight Nov. 10, that's a date we wanted," Golden Boy Chief Executive Richard Schaefer told The Times. "This will be a great card now. " Hawaiian Gardens' Mares (24-0-1, 13 knockouts) was supposed to fight Panama's Moreno (33-1-1, 12 KOs)

Carrie Underwood's choice of a tornado as the central image for her current "Blown Away" album and tour became something of a double-edged sword as her show unfolded Tuesday at Staples Center in Los Angeles. On one hand, it's a powerful symbol of a force of nature analogous to Underwood's titanium pipes, which at times seemed capable of filling the arena with no help from a PA system. On the other, a tornado is a force beyond human control that typically leaves a trail of destruction wherever it touches down, a trait Underwood also shared throughout a show that opened at maximum voltage and operated there for the bulk of the evening.

The company that owns the Staples Center and the Los Angeles Kings announced late Tuesday it is being put up for sale, sparking a potential billion-dollar bidding war for some of the sports and entertainment world's glitziest properties. The Anschutz Co., run by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, said it is seeking a buyer for its AEG subsidiary, which also has stakes in the L.A. Live entertainment venue in downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Kings professional hockey team and the Los Angeles Galaxy pro soccer team.

The good news about Keith Urban's two-hour performance Sunday at Staples Center was that the New Zealand-born, Australia-reared Nashville resident is letting loose the kind of raw human emotion that's been all but buffed out of previous tours. Urban delivered an anguished rendition of "You'll Think of Me," in which he riffed on the song's lyric, his voice breaking convincingly as he cried, "Why'd you have to break my heart -- didn't you know how much I loved you?"

Ever wonder how Staples Center switches from a Lakers basketball court to a Kings hockey rink? If so, wonder no more. You can see it all happen in the above time-lapse video shot by Jason Neubert. Some facts: It takes two to three hours for the conversion to take place. Ever wonder why it's always so cold in Staples Center during Lakers games? As you can see from the video, the basketball court is removed one panel at a time, exposing the ice, which is already in place beneath the court.

The long-gestating project from Jay-Z and Kanye West, "Watch the Throne" combines the strengths of two of the most acclaimed rappers of the last two decades, who have worked together often but never on a collaborative full-length album. It couples them with some of today's most respected producers, including RZA, DJ Premier, the Neptunes, the Jugganauts, Swizz Beats and Q-Tip. The result is a cocksure, fiery and smart, if problematic, collaboration that showcases the pair's distinct lyrical skills, their way around a metaphor and an ability to execute a grand narrative and the details that turn it into truth.

Staples Center will be the site of a public memorial service on Tuesday for Michael Jackson, a publicist for the Jackson family said Thursday, but it is unclear who will pay for the massive law enforcement deployment necessary for the event. Ken Sunshine, a Jackson family representative, said the service will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the downtown arena, site of the singer's final rehearsal.

Time: 7:30. On the air: TV: FS West; Radio: 980, 1330. Where: Staples Center. Records: Clippers 2-2, Rockets 2-2 before Tuesday's game. Record vs. Rockets (2010-11): 1-3. Update: The Clippers have had problems against the Rockets in recent seasons, losing 14 of the last 18 meetings, including the most recent, April 9 at Houston. But the Clippers did win the last time the teams played at Staples Center, 106-103 on March 2. —Broderick Turner